Friday, August 03, 2012

And the Word became flesh and
pitched his tent among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as
of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. - John 1:14

One of my most distinct memories of
Occupy DC is sitting in the Prayer Tent in McPherson Square one day
in late October. Over several weeks, the encampment had grown to take
up most of the park. As I sat in the midst of our little tent city, I
felt moved to open my Bible and re-read the final chapters of Exodus, which describe the early days of the Hebrew's sojourn in the
wilderness.

The twelve tribes of Israel wandered in
the desert for forty years. It was a time of purification -
transitioning from their old life under Pharaoh to a new life under
the direct reign of God. They were accustomed to having human rulers
boss them around and give structure to their lives, but in the desert
God began to teach them a new way.

In this new order, God taught the
Hebrew people to rely directly on the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
God drew nearer to them than the Hebrews ever thought possible - or
even desirable! Indeed, one of the major themes of Exodus is the plea
of the people that a human leader - Moses - play go-between for the
congregation and God. Our spiritual ancestors were too afraid to
approach the Lord themselves; they much preferred to have a human
ruler to mediate divine authority.

Nevertheless, God found ways to
interact directly with his fearful people, and over time the Hebrews
learned to follow him in trust. We read at
the very end of Exodus how the Lord gave the people a visible
sign of his presence - a cloud during the day, and fire at night. The
Hebrews learned that when God's tent - the Tent of Meeting - was
covered with the cloud, they were to stay where they were. But when
the cloud rose from the Tent of Meeting, the people knew that God was
calling them to move on, to explore new territory.

As predicted, this did not go well for
Israel. Though there were some good kings, the legacy of human
monarchy was appalling. Over the generations, Israel came to be
dominated by its neighbors. The people of God were repeatedly
conquered and cast into exile. Most of the Hebrews were scattered
abroad by foreign conquerers, never to see their homeland again. By
the time of the New Testament, Israel was a backwater province under
the iron fist of Rome, the most powerful human empire the world had
ever seen.

In first-century Judea, there were many
groups vying for supremacy. Preeminent among them was the Herodian
puppet government, driven by selfish greed and subservience to Rome.
There were also the Sadducees, who sought to maintain the Temple cult
at all costs. Then there were the Pharisees, who believed that
national restoration would only come through a strict, legalistic
application of the Torah. And there were the Zealots, who looked back
to the Maccabees
for inspiration; they were committed to fomenting a violent
revolution which would break the Roman yoke and restore the Davidic
kingship. Yet, despite their claims, none of these groups presented a
real alternative to Empire. At best, these groups offered a Hebrew
Pharaoh in place of a Roman one.

It was in this period of national
humiliation and despair that the Lord once again provided Israel an
opportunity to experience his direct rule. God would once again dwell
among the people, and this time God would go one step farther than
before. Rather than revealing his presence in a burning bush, a cloud
of fire, or within a tent made with human hands, God would take an
inconceivable step to show his solidarity with us. He would be
conceived.

The Word became flesh and pitched his
tent among us. God dwelled among his people in human form, submitting
to our struggles and limitations. In this consummate act of
solidarity, God demonstrated once and for all that he would not stand
aloof while his children suffered; he became one of us, sharing our
human experience and demonstrating in his own body the way to true
liberation. Even today, through his resurrected presence, we
experience God as dwelling immanently among us, guiding us directly.
Because our world has been occupied by the grace and truth of
Jesus Christ, we are freed to walk in his life and power, rather than
in bondage to the empires of our day.

Which brings me back to the encampment
at McPherson Square. Though Occupy Wall Street was a human movement,
there are ways in which it reflected God's character. It was
particularly striking to me how the Occupy movement sought to
incarnate new life and
expanded imagination in the streets of our cities, which had
previously been the exclusive domain of Empire. Sitting in the Prayer
Tent at Occupy DC, I could not help but remark on how the Holy
Spirit continues to move among the people, inspiring us to imitate
the God who pitches his tent among us.

What
does this mean for us as Friends of Jesus? How do we make sense of
our heritage as the people of the God who encamps in our midst? How
is the living Spirit of God moving among us today, calling us into
risky action and shared sacrifice? How do we know when the cloud has
lifted, that the Lord has called us to take up our tents and follow
him through this desert? Are we ready to trust him, to love him, to
honor him as our only King?